06/02/2026
A doesn’t truly exist until it’s easy to decode.
recently announced dav2d, a fast, production-oriented decoder for , the next royalty-free video codec following . One detail that stood out: decoding is reported to be roughly 5× more complex than .
Three key takeaways:
🔹 is targeting approximately 25% better compression efficiency than in common evaluations.
🔹 Complexity is the hidden cost. Without significant optimization, real-time software decoding could be challenging on today's hardware.
🔹 The team is applying lessons learned from dav1d from day one, including optimized threading, SIMD implementations, rigorous testing, and cross-platform portability.
The broader lesson is that infrastructure matters just as much as specifications.
A new codec can promise better compression, but adoption depends on whether developers can experiment with it, benchmark it, integrate it into products, and deploy it efficiently. Fast, open-source decoders help bridge the gap between a promising standard and real-world usage—often long before hardware support arrives.
What new technologies do you think are currently limited more by infrastructure than by the technology itself?
Source: https://jbkempf.com/blog/2026/dav2d/
